Maryland County Allocates Nearly $1 Million to Retrofit Storm Water Facility
The Carroll County Board of Commissioners in Maryland designated nearly $1 million last week toward the retrofit of a stormwater facility and approved the purchase of three acres to expand a storm water pond.
According to the Carroll County Times, the board awarded approximately $958,300 to W.F. Delauter & Sons for a contract to retrofit the existing facility, a shallow marsh at Shiloh Middle School. The county received five bids total, and four of them were for amounts greater than $1 million.
Built in 2003, the marsh is no longer in compliance with storm water standards, Janet O’Meara, county watershed management coordinator told the Carroll County Times. The Carroll County Board of Education received a compliance letter in 2017, and then the county reached out to form a partnership.
With the completion of the project, the county will receive credit for 23 acres of impervious area storm water management, according to the Carroll County Times. The school board gave the county slightly under $200,000 and the commissioners are contributing about $758,300.
The marsh sits behind fields at the middle school, and because it has a liner that made the design process more complicated than anticipated it’s taken the county two years to get to this point in the process.
In addition to retrofitting the marsh, the county also approved a $25,000 purchase of three acres from a local woman to expand a storm water management pond, according to the Carroll County Times.
The property, which was appraised from $10,000 in 2018, is home to a storm water pond and is currently two acres. The new plan designed by engineers includes doubling the size of the existing facility by approximately three acres, adding a 20-ft storm drain easement along the western property line and creating a 30-ft entrance to the facility.
First in expanding the pond, comes moving dirt. To save the county about $200,000 in hauling costs, the property owner, Arbana Lambert, agreed to let the county leave approximately 19,000 cu yd of dirt elsewhere on the property, which is about 8.6 acres. According to the Carroll County Times, Gale Engles, bureau chief of Resource Management, said Lambert requested $25,000 in exchange for the land.
Engles said she hopes the project will begin in October and be completed in four to six months. Once completed, the storm water pond will be turned over to the town for long-term maintenance, the Carroll County Times reported.
Engles told the Carroll County Times she could not disclose the total cost of the project as it hasn’t been put out to bid, but the Department of Natural Resources awarded $375,000 in construction costs, and the commission accepted about $78,000 from the Maryland Emergency Number Systems Board.
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